A voyage of discovery into the life of a remote aboriginal community in the Siberian Arctic, where the reindeer has been a part of daily life since Palaeolithic times.

The reindeer, along with the dog, was probably the first species to be drawn into a close relationship with man. This book, by an eminent British anthropologist, is the beautifully written story of how that relationship works and of the intimacy between the nomadic reindeer people and the landscape they inhabit. What to the Western eye looks like a vast, uninhabited Arctic wilderness is in fact filled with animals, humans and spirits - and the memory-traces of their interactions down the ages.

No other Western author has had such access (since before the Cold War ended) to these distant regions of the Siberian taiga. Living and travelling with the reindeer people over a period of a dozen years, Piers Vitebsky has seen how, first, Communism and collectivisation threatened the way of life of the nomadic tribesmen, and then the marketplace continued to transform their existence. Through all the changes of the late 20th-century the reindeer has retained its central place in the physical and spiritual life of the people. The book is also a celebration of human love at an elemental level.

About the Author

Piers Vitebsky is a noted anthropologist and deputy director (and Head of Social Sciences and Russian Studies) at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University. An acknowledged expert on Shamanism, he has spent much of the last decade and more living amongst the Eveny people in Siberia. His previous books include Dialogues with the Dead (Cambridge) and The Shaman (Macmillan).

Reviews

'Remarkable.' Financial Times

'Like all the finest anthropology, this book entertains readers with descriptions of an alien culture, only to imbue them with a deeper sense of common humanity.' The Times

'If you read one book this year on a subject you never suspected would grab your attention and hold it through 400 deeply researched and elegantly written pages, read "Reindeer People". It will grip and enlighten anyone...Like the reindeer themselves, this book take wing.' Daily Telegraph

'A tender and highly personal piece of anthropology.' Daily Mail

'So intimate, so revealing and so moving...This book is required reading.' The Moscow Times

Book Information
ISBN 9780007133635
Author Piers Vitebsky
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint HarperPerennial
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 337g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 29mm